title:      Release Notes for v2.5
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Python-Markdown 2.5 Release Notes
=================================

We are pleased to release Python-Markdown 2.5 which adds a few new features
and fixes various bugs. See the list of changes below for details.

Python-Markdown supports Python versions 2.7, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4.

Backwards-incompatible Changes
------------------------------

* Python-Markdown no longer supports Python version 2.6. You must be using Python 2.7+
or Python-Markdown 2.5 will not load.

* The `force_linenos` config key on the [CodeHilite Extension] has been deprecated
and will raise a `KeyError` if provided. In the previous release (2.4), it was issuing 
a `DeprecationWarning`. The [`linenums`][linenums] keyword should be used instead,
which provides more control of the output.

[CodeHilite Extension]: extensions/code_hilite.html
[linenumes]: extensions/code_hilite.html#usage

What's New in Python-Markdown 2.5
---------------------------------

* The [Smarty Extension] has had a number of additional configuration settings
added, which allows one to define their own subtitutions to better support
languages other than English. Thanks to [Martin Altmayer] for implementing this feature.

[Smarty Extension]: extensions/smarty.html
[Martin Altmayer]:https://github.com/MartinAltmayer

* Named Extensions (strings passed to the [`extensions`][ex] keyword of `markdown.Markdown`) 
  can now point to any module and/or Class on your PYTHONPATH. While dot notation was 
  previously supported, a module could not be at the root of your PYTHONPATH. The name had 
  to contain at least one dot (requiring it to be a submodule). This restriction no longer 
  exists. 

	Additionaly, a Class may be specified in the name. The class must be at the end of the 
	name (usig dot notation from PYTHONPATH) and seperated by a colon from the module. 

	Therefore, if you were to import the class like this:
	
		from path.to.module import SomeExtensionClass

	Then the named extension would be the string:

		"path.to.module:SomeExtensionClass"
	
	This allows multiple extensions to be implemented within the same module and still 
	accessable when the user isn't able to import the extension directly (perhaps from 
	a template filter or the command line).

	This also means that extension modules are no longer required to include the 
	`makeExtension`	funtion which returns an instance of the extension class. However, 
	if the user does not specify the class name (she only provides `"path.to.module"`)
	the extension will fail to load without the `makeExtension` function included in
	the module. Extension authors will want to document carfully what is required to
	load their extensions.

[ex]: reference.html#extensions

* The Extension Configuration code has been refactord to make it a little easier 
for extension authors to work with config settings. As a result, the 
[`extension_configs`][ec] keyword now accepts a dictionary rather than requiring 
a list of tuples. A list of tuples is still supported so no one needs to change 
their existing code. This should also simplify the learning curve for new users.

[ec]: reference.html#extension_configs

* The [Command Line Interface][cli] now accepts a `--extensions_config` (or `-c`) option
which accepts a filename and passes the parsed content of a [YAML] or [JSON] file to the 
[`extension_configs`][ec] keyword of the `markdown.Markdown` class. The contents of 
the YAML or JSON must map to a Python Dictionary which matches the format required 
by the `extension_configs` kerword. Note that [PyYAML] is required to parse YAML files.

[cli]: cli.html#using-extensions
[YAML]: http://yaml.org/
[JSON]: http://json.org/
[PyYAML]: http://pyyaml.org/

* There have been various refactors of the testing framework. While those changes
will not directly effect end users, the code is being better tested which will 
benefit everyone.

* Various bug fixes have been made.  See the
[commit log](https://github.com/waylan/Python-Markdown/commits/master)
for a complete history of the changes.